


Before Goodbye

by starsscribe



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene, a kind of heart to heart that the boys never get
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-04 17:24:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18609124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsscribe/pseuds/starsscribe
Summary: Before Steve sets off to return the stones, he and Bucky talk one last time.





	Before Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> Steve's ending as it relates to Bucky in Endgame felt so off to me, but I had no doubt that Bucky knew exactly what Steve's plans were when he went back with the stones. So this is my attempt at filling in that missing moment. I wanted to try and create a canon compliant scene that could conceivably just be slotted into the move. It's just a short, little thing and my first time posting anything I've written publicly, but I hope you enjoy.

The lake is beautiful. So calm, quiet, and serene. Bucky can see why Stark would have wanted to move out here to be with his family.

He can hear the dull hum of conversations happening inside the cabin through the closed screen door behind him. He’d stepped out of the wake a few minutes ago and is now leaning his arms on the porch railing, staring out at the scenery before him.

He hears the screen door open behind him and familiar footfalls come up next to him.

“What are you doing out here?” Steve asks.

“Felt weird,” Bucky admits. “Being in there. I… I did kill the guy's parents. He probably wouldn't have wanted me at his funeral.”

“I don't think he held that against you in the end,” Steve says, leaning his arms on the railing next to Bucky. He has a half-empty drink in his hands. “It was me he was actually mad at me. For lying to him.”

“Which you shouldn't have done,” Bucky says with a pointed look at his friend. It’s a conversation they’ve had before. Bucky made it very clear once they were out of Siberia that he thought Steve keeping the truth from Stark had been a horrible, almost cruel, decision.

Steve looks down at his drink, in agreement and admonishment. A moment later, he looks back up, towards the lake. For a minute or two, they both just stare at the scenery in comfortable silence.

It’s Bucky who breaks it.

“Bruce says you volunteered to put the stones back?” He says it casually as if it isn’t a potentially dangerous kind of decision.

Steve hesitates a moment before answering.

“Yeah...”

“You're not coming back are you.” The way Bucky phrases it, it’s not a question.

Steve straightens up a little and turns towards him.

“Buck… I—”

“No…” Bucky cuts him off. “I… You deserve to be happy… you do.”

There’s another movement of silence. Neither of them is quite sure what to say. There’s so much to say.

“I just... I feel like I can't move forward here,” Steve finally speaks, looking down at his drink. “I think I've felt that way for a long time.”

He smiles softly as he looks up towards Bucky. “I guess I never really was good at letting people go.”

Bucky thinks of crashing helicarriers, of falling, of running through a tunnel in Bucharest, of what happened in Germany, in Siberia.

“So...,” he says to Steve. “I guess this is the end of the line.”

“You know you could...”

“No. I go back, I won't be able to stop myself from trying to save myself.” He turns to give a pointed look to Steve. “And that sounds like it would cause a whole lot of problems with the timeline.”

“I won't... I won't interfere...,” Steve says. “But you could still come with.”

“I think I did enough third wheeling for you and Peggy during the war, thank you.”

It cuts the tension a little and both of them smile softly.

“Ya know... they found all the pieces after the battle,” Steve says. “Shuri says she can put it back together, give it a new paint job...”

The offer hangs in the air for half a moment.

“I haven't been myself in so long,” Bucky finally says. “I gotta figure out who I am before I start stealing other people's gimmicks.”

“Well, I'll leave it here for you if you want it.”

“No,” Bucky says. “You and I both know there's someone else who deserves it just as much, if not more.”

He and Steve both turn to look back at the wake. Through the screen door, they can see Sam talking quietly with Rhodey, Fury, and Hill.

“But if you are going to time travel,” Bucky says with a smile. “The very least you can do is get him a _proper_ shield.”

He turns back to look at the lake again. Steve turns and looks at him. There's one last pause.

“Hey, Buck?”

“Yeah, Steve?”

“Take care of yourself. And watch his six?”

Bucky turns his head to meet Steve's eyes.

“Don't worry,” he says. “He won't have to get by on his own. And neither will I.”

 


End file.
